Congress-BJP government to ensure transparency: Arunachal Governor

Itanagar, Feb 25 (IANS) Arunachal Pradesh Governor J.P. Rajkhowa on Thursday said that the newly-formed Congress-BJP government led by Kalikho Pul will ensure that transparency, accountability and good governance become the core of every public institution.

“Our government, which is committed to a corruption-free government, would invigorate existing laws like the Lokayukta Act and also promote and strengthen anti-corruption institutions like the Vigilance Commission,” Rajkhowa said in his maiden address to the assembly.

Stating that the government shall make every effort to curb financial profligacy, the governor said: “Wasteful expenditure will be identified, minimized and eliminated. Funds will be deployed for creation of assets and human resources.

“A slim government is always a speedier government. A flabby one, besides moving at a snail’s pace, becomes a breeding ground for corruption and inefficiency,” Rajkhowa said.

Rajkhowa announced the setting up of a permanent Public Finance Watchdog Committee to advise on augmenting receipts as well as on rationalizing expenditure to function as an Emergency Lamp for the government so that errors were culled out when they were committed.

On the developmental front, the governor said the government will make substantial allocations for education, health, sanitation, urban development, handloom and handicrafts, horticulture, tourism, water supply, rural development, police, power, roads, drinking water, agriculture and irrigation.

“There will be de-centralization of public funds from the capital to grassroots. Our government will also undertake a serious review of the fund flow to urban and rural local bodies.”

Noting that Arunachal Pradesh was now almost 100 percent dependent on central funding, Rajkhowa said: “Our government is therefore desirous of setting up a a single window clearance mechanism for encouraging investment in micro, small, medium and large scale enterprises.

“The mechanism for clearing major proposals will be called Arunachal State Investment Board with two-tier decision-making. First, it will be a small sized bureaucratic apparatus and at the top it will have a ministerial body to ultimately clear investment proposals,” he told the members.

However, he said that the economic development of the State cannot compromise the traditional and customary structure of the society.

Rajkhowa said the new government had proposed to appoint a new State Law Commission to identify and phase out archaic laws.

“It would be the endeavor of our government to inculcate value based education among children and youths. The varied richness of our culture, history and heritage is yet to be incorporated into school and college text books,” he said.